ALA Annual 2008-Anaheim

ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session-Sunday June 29

Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC) Report-Marilyn Hinshaw
FY 2009 Budget $53,421,204 in revenue and expenses budgeted at $54,525,383.

ALA Endowment Trustees Report-Robert Newlen, Chair
Endowment Fund PerformanceFor the five months ending 5-31-08 the value in the ALA endowment fund declined by approximately $667,000 from $31.2 million to $30.6 million. Despite negative results in the funds performance is significantly better than the market.

Library Education Task Force-Michael Gorman

The Library Education Task Force is requesting your comments on the core competencies list:
1. Foundations of the Profession
2. Information Resources
3. Organization of Recorded Knowledge and Information
4. Technological Knowledge and Skills
5. Reference and User Services
6. Research
7. Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning
8. Administration and Management

*ALA Presidents Report-Loriene Roy

*ALA President-Elect's Report-Jim Rettig

*To view full text of these reports and other Council Documents visit http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceofficeb/council/councildocuments/councildocuments.cfm


ALA-APA Information Session-Sunday, June 29, 2008
President's Report-Workplace Wellness web site-www.ala-apa.org/wellness.

President Elect's Report-Strengthening Professionalism in the Public Interest-Partnership between ALA, ALA-APA, and more than 15 professional associations and unions discussing common areas of interest around professional integrity. Sponsored by the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO.

ALA Council I- Sunday, June 29, 2008
Nominations for Council Committee on Committees and Planning and Budget Assembly followed by appointment of tellers for COC and PBA Elections.

Guidelines for preparation of resolutions for Council Policy 5.3 was presented with suggested revisions.

ALA/APA Council Monday, June 30, 2008
Treasurer's Report/Annual Estimates

Annual estimates of income FY 2009:

• Revenue Projection: $250,088
  
• Expense Projection: $215,313
  

Full report with actual figures not yet available. Lengthy discussion regarding financial viability of APA. No specific action items identified.

Certified Public Administrator Program Update
2007 Annual Conference - 76 candidates
2008 Annual Conference - 106 candidates
Total course enrollment is 381 students 204 of which have been CPLA candidates. The majority are in medium sized libraries serving communities of 25k to 100k.

ALA-APA Standing Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers

• Providing a variety of programs at conference pertaining to this topic.
  
• Living wage resolution proposed:

Resolved that in recognition of the skills and competencies required of all library workers, the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association endorses a minimum wage for all library workers of at least $13.00 per hour, to be adjusted annually in relation to the Federal poverty guidelines. Note: applicable to full time staff. Passed.

ALA Council II Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Policy Monitoring Committee Report-Janet Swan Hill

Consistency of language denoting the profession. Action item to regularize language in manual by referring to "library and information studies" unless use of this term might be awkward or misleading. Action item was approved.

Change "ALA-accredited programs of library science" to "ALA accredited programs of library and information science." Approved

Other changes approved:

Replace "The details of the appeals procedure shall be adopted by the Executive Board as implementation of this policy, and the procedure shall be a part of the information supplied to institutions participating in the accreditation process." with "Details regarding the appeals procedure shall be supplied to all programs participating in the accreditation process."

Placement of revisions to Code of Ethics approved by Council at midwinter 2008.

Revised guidelines for preparation of resolutions (ALA Policy 5.3)

Task Force on E-Member Participation Report-Janet Swan Hill

Update on discussions regarding this topic but no resolutions/recommendations put forward.

ALA Membership Committee Report on Corporate Membership Proposal-Dora Ho Council approved the proposal to structure corporate membership by establishing two levels of corporate membership dues, $500 and $2000 to take effect on September 1, 2008.

ALA Treasurer's Report

Following fairly clear explanations from Jennifer Grady and Rod Herseberger, the budgetary ceiling for ALA-APA was passed at about $265,000. The fiscal future of ALA-APA remains uncertain. The fiscal future of ALA is solid and well documented. The budgetary ceiling for ALA was approved at $67,984,278. Judith Platt, Freedom to Read Foundation President reported litigation activity underway to defend the rights of readers and bookstores to resist challenges to their right to have access to books and information. Membership in the FTRF has fallen off in recent years. ALA Members are encouraged to join: http://www.ftrf.org/joinftrf.html

Resolution Adopting the Definitions of Digital Preservation and the Revised Preservation Policy for the American Library Association - That the American Library Association adopt the definitions of digital preservation and the revised Preservation Policy for use on the web, verbally, in written policy statements, and other documents. Passed.

Resolution on Support for Funding Cataloging and Bibliographic Control at the Library of Congress -Resolved, that the ALA urges the Library of Congress to devote more resources to the training of professional bibliographic access librarians, both those employed at the LOC and in other American libraries, and be it further Resolved, that the ALA Executive Director instruct the Washington Office to advocate and petition for increased federal funding to support the work of bibliographic control at the LOC by filling and expanding the number of bibliographic access positions, and be it further Resolved, that the ALA Executive Director instruct the Washington Office to communicate this message in discussions with members of Congress and others. Passed.

Resolution Supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)-Passed - Resolved that the ALA calls for the reinstatement in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) of protections for transgender persons from employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression, and be it further Resolved, ALA calls for passage of H.R. 2015 or other inclusive version of ENDA by both Houses of Congress. Passed.

Resolution Concerning ALA Policy Opposing Sweatshop Labor and Support Union Business
The American Library Association and its divisions, round tables, and all other units should purchase all products for distribution to membership from sweatshop free producers; and this resolution be communicated to all ALA divisions, round tables, all other units, and ALA staff.

Suggested addition to second resolved clause; This resolution and information about how to comply with it shall be distributed to all ALA divisions, round tables, and all other units and ALA staff. Passed.

ALA Council III-Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Recognition of Lois Ann Gregory for 40 years of service with ALA Office.

Constitution & Bylaws Committee Applications for ALA affiliate status for the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) and the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) were proposed and accepted. Rules governing interim appointments of President Elect and Treasurer due to unanticipated vacancies were presented and approved. Amendment clarifying terms of office for officers and elected members of the Executive Board as serving until the adjournment of the annual conference that follows the selection of their successors was approved. Resolution to remove specific dues amounts from the ALA bylaws was approved.

Intellectual Freedom Committee The Intellectual Freedom Committee, chaired by Kenton Oliver, did an excellent job of keeping our IF documents up to date. For full report see: http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceofficeb/council/councildocuments/councildocuments.cfm

International Relations Committee The International Relations Committee presented an action item seeking the return of historical documents confiscated from the Iraqi National Library.

Committee on Organization Revision of composition of Committee on Accreditation proposed which basically formalizes and clarifies current practice in place for appointments. Approved.

Committee on Legislation Resolution in support of the National Agricultural Library (NAL) was approved. Resolution on the E-government Reauthorization Act of 2007 was approved.

Resolution in support of preservation and access to the audio heritage of the United States, which urges members of the U.S. Congress to charge the U.S. Copyright Office to conduct a study on the desirability of bringing sound recordings before February 15, 1972, under federal jurisdiction was proposed and approved. This resolution was brought forward because the shelf life of these formats is not known and there are concerns that the information may become inaccessible if not converted to other formats. Passed.

New Business:

Resolution adopting the definitions of digital preservation and the revised preservation policy for the American Library Association was approved.

Resolution on expanding Council transparency was proposed. The intent is to study ways to make the business of the Association more visible to the membership.

Total Attendance: 22,047

Midwinter Meeting January 2008-Philadelphia

Council I-Sunday, January 13, 2008

Information Session

ALA net revenue for Fiscal Year 2007 was $840,201. The Graduated Dues Structure Task Force reported on estimated fees for a comprehensive research study and implementation costs. In its entirety the cost would be approximately $624,000.

Discussion regarding the ability of divisions, sections and roundtables to endorse candidates for executive board.

Questions from councilors about whether this is a new policy were raised. Keith Michael Fiels indicated that this policy is not new but has been in place for over a decade.

Resolution on Member Access to Electronic Lists

Whereas, read-only access to the Association’s electronic Council list by non-council members has been shown to allow member participiation without negative impact upon the business of the Association,

Therefore, be it resolved that this resolution shall be implemented on ALA servers as soon as the ALA Executive Director deems it feasible.

Referred to task force due to complexities.

1/14/08 ALA-APA Council
Treasurer’s Report
APA is up-to-date in their repayment schedule of the $250,000 loan from ALA to start the organization.

Certified Public Administrator Program
First person has completed the program
59 candidates have completed one course
96 candidates are actively enrolled

Executive Board Candidates Forum
Thomas Wilding Professor, SIRLS-Tucson, AZ
Francis R. Roscello, School Library Media Program Coordinator, NY
X Em Claire Knowles, Professor, Simmons Graduate School of Lib. and Info. Science
Dora T. Ho, Young Adult Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library
Pamela C Sieving, Informationist-Medical Librarian
X Diane R. Chen, School Library Information Specialist Nashville, TN
X Joseph Eagan, Maryland Chapter Councilor

X=elected by Council as reported 1/16/08

Council Forum

Code of Ethics revisions/updates

Discussion centered on whether to include "fair use and public domain" be included in the following statement: "We recognize and respect intellectual property rights and advocate balance between the interests of information users and rights holders and support fair use and public domain."


Provision of accessible internet access computers at ALA events

A blind conference attendee was not able to use the computers at the internet cafe. ALA staff made arrangements for this individual, however, some Council members would like to address this issue via a resolution which would ensure accessible computers for the disabled are set up in advance thus eliminating the need for a special request to be made.


Revisions to update language for LIS Accreditation Standards

Question of whether Council should update language now or wait until task force on accreditation has completed their work in revising standards was discussed. Some argued that waiting for task force recommendations will take too long and proposed changes only update out-of-date buzz phrases in education. Others say changes are substantive and that the task force will be ready with a recommendation soon.


1/15/08 Council II


Freedom To Read Foundation Report
Reported on various challenges around the country including the King's English vs. Shurtleff lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Utah's expanded "harmless to minors" statute. FTRF reports that the statute has an astounding reach; not only criminalizing constitutionally protected Internet content, but giving the state's attorney general authority to designnate a website to be "harmful to minors" without judicial review. In the spring of 2007, the State of Utah filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit asserting that the FTRF and its co-plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the law. On November 20, 2007 the court denied the State's motion to dismiss the lawsuit ruling that FTRF could continue to represent the first amendment interests of Internet users across the country.


Campaign Guidelines

Some council members argue that roundtables, sections, divisions, etc. should be able to endorse a particular candidate though current policy does not allow this. The policy has been in place for 15 years but has not been necessarily been the practice of groups.


Moved that the executive board revisit the campaigning guidelines/policy and report back to Council at Annual Conference 2008.


Amendment by substitution (1):

Except for members of the ALA Executive Board individuals who are elected officers or committee chairs of the Association and its units may personally endorse candidates. DEFEATED


Proposed Change to Time of Council Meetings

Move that the scheduling of ALA Council sessions end on Tuesday as the last Council meeting beginning at Midwinter 2009. No action taken until implications have been studied.


1/16/08 Council III

Treasurer's Report


General fund net revenue is down from $624,000 in 2006 to $472,000 in 2007. Total member ship in 2006 was 64,689. Total membership for 2007 was 64,729.


Committee on Status on Women in Librarianship

Resolution in support of women as caregivers in the workforce (CD#41). Suggestion to add men who are caregivers was made. Resolution passed as written.


Committee on Organization

Any candidate for an elected or appointed position within ALA shall refrain from any committee or board activity that could advance or appear to advance his or her candidacy. Did not pass. Council stated concerns with vagueness of language.


CD#25 Constitution and Bylaws Report
Affiliate status for the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM). Resolution passed.


Affiliate status for the On-line Audiovisual Catlogers (OLAC). Resolution passed.


President-Elect vacancy-Allows the Executive Board to appoint an individual if an unexpected
vacancy occurs. This appointment is subject to Council approval and will serve in an "acting" capacity until confirmation by Council occurs. Resolution passed.

Treasurer Vacancy-Allows the Executive Board to appoint an interim treasurer if necessary subject to a confirmation mail vote by Council. Position will be filled by regular election at the next election unless the regular election is less than four months away.

Committee on Legislation
Resolution on…….
CD#20.1 Government Printing Office FY 2009 Appropriations
CD#20.2 Tribal College Library Membership in the Federal Depository Library Program
CD#20.3 Safeguarding Electronic Government Info.and E-government in times of disaster
CD#20.4 Opposing Postal Rate Increases for Small Circulation Publications
CD#20.5 Acknowledging Bassem Youssef (FBI whistleblower) regarding abuses of National Security Letters.
CD#20.6 Full Funding of the Federal Digital System


SRRT Resolution on the Crisis in Kenya

Passed with a vote of 67 to 65.

Resolution on the Confiscation of Iraqi Documents from the Iraq National Library Archives (CD #44)

Resolved that ALA condemns the confiscation of documents from the Iraq National Library and Archive by the United States and British forces and strongly advocates the immediate return of all documents, and, be it further resolved, that ALA calls for the United States Government to honor the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its Second Protocol. Passed.


Midwinter attendance as reported by Keith Michael Fiels-13,601 PHL--up from 12,230 in Seattle January 2007.